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CHAPEL HILL - Another extremely difficult schedule paid off for North Carolina on Tuesday when the club earned the No. 7 overall seed in the upcoming NCAA Women's Tennis Tournament.

Carolina, No. 11 in the most recent ITA Tennis rankings, is tied for the national lead with 24 dual match victories, sharing the honor alongside Duke and Baylor.

The 24-5 Tar Heels wound up playing 13 teams (16 matches) that will compete in the NCAA Tournament. UNC finished 11-5 in those contests.

Carolina played eight of the 16 teams that earned national seeds, and picked up victories over top seed Georgia, third seed Virginia, nine seed Vanderbilt, 12th seed Miami and 15th seed Northwestern.

In fact the only three teams to defeat UNC this season all earned national seeds: fourth seed Duke, 10th seed Texas A&M and 13th seed Clemson.

The Tar Heels will host a regional for the 12th time in the last 13 seasons and the 10th time under the direction of head coach Brian Kalbas. UNC will take on VCU on Friday, May 9 at 1 p.m. Tennessee and Georgia State will play before at 10 a.m.

The two winners will face each other on Saturday, May 10 at 3 p.m., with the victor moving to the finals at the University of Georgia May 15-20 at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga.

Georgia State earned the automatic bid out of the Sun Belt Conference by winning the league's tournament last weekend. This is the second NCAA bid in Panthers' history, the first came in 2009. Nationally ranked in both singles and doubles, Abigail Tere-Apisah was named Georgia State's Female Student Athlete of the Year during the athletic department's annual Blue Carpet Awards. She reached No. 8 in singles and partnered with Masa Grgan to notch a No. 16 ranking in doubles during the 2013-14 campaign. Both are the highest rankings in program history. Tere-Apisah was also named the 2014 Sun Belt Player of the Year on account of her 11 wins over nationally-ranked singles opponents.

The Lady Vols earned its 20th consecutive appearance in the NCAA tournament, and 24th overall with an at-large bid out of the SEC. This also marks the second-straight season that Tennessee will play in Chapel Hill during the first and second rounds of the NCAA tourney. The series is tied 14-14 between UT and UNC after the 4-1 Tar Heel win in the Round of 32 last season. UT features five freshmen and a junior in its starting singles lineup. The club lost in the first round of the SEC tournament to LSU on April 17. Freshman Eve Repic was named second team All-SEC and to the All-Freshman team.

Carolina will open the tournament Friday at 1 p.m. against the Rams, the two-time defending Atlantic 10 Tournament champions. VCU is making its 15th NCAA Tournament appearance after earning the A-10's automatic bid. Like Tennessee, VCU also played in Chapel Hill during the 2013 NCAA Tournament. Additionally, this will be the Rams third trip to Chapel Hill during the 2013-14 season. Earlier at the ITA Carolinas Regional, VCU fell to Memphis and Denver on Jan. 25 and 26, respectively. The Rams also competed in the Kitty Harrison Invitational in the fall.